Hey everybody. I thought I better ask about the weight training system I have been using since there's nothing written about it anywhere because I made it up to some extent.

Firs, my goals: I am a 22 year old male, 5 foot 6 or 7, not sure, 145 pounds, 11-12% fat. I have had injuries from my feet up to my head, but most importantly in my right knee, and both shoulders, with two surgeries thrown in there. I have been through physical therapy 6 times that I can remember, but there might be more I can't from years ago... I majored in nutritional science in college so I don't even want to talk about diet (I eat well and I'm sick of talking about diet after 4 years of it..;)). My goal is to gain probably 10 pounds of lean mass over a long period of time and be fit. What I want is to decrease my chance of injuring myself as much as possible so that I can keep doing the things that I like to do and I tried to design my workout plan accordingly.

I am eating a couple scoops of whey to supplement, as well as 1500 mg glucosamine, chondroitin, and methylsulfonylmethane.

Here is what I currently do:

I have my workouts split. An example of how I split them is day 1, pulling exercises, day 2 legs and lower back, day 3 pushing exercises, day 4 abs/core, day 5 off or continue cardio, day 6 pulling exercise, rinse, repeat, etc. I pay attention to what my body is telling me VERY closely and if I feel overexerted or that I was close to hurting myself, particularly in the shoulders, I take an extra day off or how ever many it takes to feel normal again, not out of laziness, but out of necessity. I do up to 12 reps per exercise before upping the weight. I own a bench, a barbell, and two sets of adjustable dumbells. Oh, and I probably ride my bike 50 miles a week, just getting around the city.

So far, everything is normal, but my question is really about the nature of the exercises I do. What I have done is cut out from mens fitness magazines pushing, pulling, leg, and ab/core exercises. So say It's pushing day. I'll go to my pushing pile and grab out 6 exercises randomly. The big ones like benchpress are always included but I vary the others every single workout. The reason I do this is A) so I make myself "well rounded" in terms of strengthening and supporting my joints and B) to not get bored.

So is there any detriment to varying your workout every single time? Say I don't target tri's or lats or something fairly small for a week or two. Can this be a problem as far as strength gains/adaptation/something else I don't even know?

thanks for the replies in advance.

Hey everybody. I thought I better ask about the weight training system I have been using since there's nothing written about it anywhere because I made it up to some extent.

Firs, my goals: I am a 22 year old male, 5 foot 6 or 7, not sure, 145 pounds, 11-12% fat. I have had injuries from my feet up to my head, but most importantly in my right knee, and both shoulders, with two surgeries thrown in there. I have been through physical therapy 6 times that I can remember, but there might be more I can't from years ago... I majored in nutritional science in college so I don't even want to talk about diet (I eat well and I'm sick of talking about diet after 4 years of it..;)). My goal is to gain probably 10 pounds of lean mass over a long period of time and be fit. What I want is to decrease my chance of injuring myself as much as possible so that I can keep doing the things that I like to do and I tried to design my workout plan accordingly.

I am eating a couple scoops of whey to supplement, as well as 1500 mg glucosamine, chondroitin, and methylsulfonylmethane.

Here is what I currently do:

I have my workouts split. An example of how I split them is day 1, pulling exercises, day 2 legs and lower back, day 3 pushing exercises, day 4 abs/core, day 5 off or continue cardio, day 6 pulling exercise, rinse, repeat, etc. I pay attention to what my body is telling me VERY closely and if I feel overexerted or that I was close to hurting myself, particularly in the shoulders, I take an extra day off or how ever many it takes to feel normal again, not out of laziness, but out of necessity. I do up to 12 reps per exercise before upping the weight. I own a bench, a barbell, and two sets of adjustable dumbells. Oh, and I probably ride my bike 50 miles a week, just getting around the city.

So far, everything is normal, but my question is really about the nature of the exercises I do. What I have done is cut out from mens fitness magazines pushing, pulling, leg, and ab/core exercises. So say It's pushing day. I'll go to my pushing pile and grab out 6 exercises randomly. The big ones like benchpress are always included but I vary the others every single workout. The reason I do this is A) so I make myself "well rounded" in terms of strengthening and supporting my joints and B) to not get bored.

So is there any detriment to varying your workout every single time? Say I don't target tri's or lats or something fairly small for a week or two. Can this be a problem as far as strength gains/adaptation/something else I don't even know?

thanks for the replies in advance.

There are pros and cons to that. It is actually a fun workout. I know a few people who have done that .. in fact, with David Greenwalt's Leanness Lifestyle, one of the members came up with cards that would have the push-pull and you would draw cards for the day to get your workout. It would be pretty tough to come up with something that hasn't already been tried, but congratulations for figuring it out on your own.

The advantage to what you are doing is that you are constantly changing the stimulus and this may continue to reap mass gains for you. The disadvantage is that you are not giving your body time to neurologically adapt to the training. This means you will not develop as much strength, and could eventually set yourself up for injury because your mass gains will exceed your body's ability to coordinate your motor units ... so you'll get a heavy load and overburden your tendons/ligaments/joints etc.

Some people train like this all of the time, others like myself find it better to do various phases of training.

Joe Weider coined a term for the type of training you are doing called the Confusion Principle.

Jeremy Likness

Your routine sounds pretty solid to me and one of the highlights of it is that you don't get bored since you do a different workout each day. If you're satisfied with like you say "10 pounds of lean mass over a long period of time and be fit", you're definitely on the right track. However IMO, there are faster ways of getting there but you'll probably have to lift heavier and that may cause injuries if you get sloppy with form.

Your workout will get you there especially since you know so much about the nutrition it takes, but not only that - your workout and attitude promotes "consistency" and "patience". To me, these are the most important aspects of training. Good luck!

You mention that sometimes you may skip a 'small' group like triceps for weeks at a time. In my opinion you can do your push/pull routine but on push days make sure to do at least one chest, shoulder and tricep exercise for a few sets and on pull days make sure to hit back, rear delts, and biceps.

It's really no different from a bodybuilding split of:

Chest, Front Delts, Triceps
Back, Rear/Side Delts, Biceps
Legs, Low Back
Abs and Core

I also agree with what Jeremy said about the risk of injury. I like to do an exercise a few weeks in a row then drop it out completely for a week or two, then reintroduce. It's 'confusion' but only after some strength gains are accumulated for the exercise. For instance I'll start my chest/triceps/biceps day with bench press for a few weeks, then I'll start with incline dumbell presses for a few weeks with no benching. Each time I return to benching my chest is stronger but the weights I can push are lower because I'm not used to it. By doing it this way, I get to increase the weight each workout without buring out from doing the same routine for weeks or months at a time.

in fact, with David Greenwalt's Leanness Lifestyle, one of the members came up with cards that would have the push-pull and you would draw cards for the day to get your workout. It would be pretty tough to come up with something that hasn't already been tried, but congratulations for figuring it out on your own.
I actually do put my workouts on 3 by 5 inch notecards and shuffle them a bit before choosing. Well, glad to hear I came up with something that others have found effective.

The disadvantage is that you are not giving your body time to neurologically adapt to the training. This means you will not develop as much strength, and could eventually set yourself up for injury because your mass gains will exceed your body's ability to coordinate your motor units
I am definitely trying to avoid injury. The fact that I don't increase the weight until I can do greater than 10 or 12 reps doesn't allow for enough time for a neuromuscular adaptation? Would it be safer if I stuck to say, 3 out of my 6 exercises for a few weeks and only varied the other three?

On another note, I've been doing this routine for roughly a month and a half or two months and have been seeing strength gains. Is it likely that these strength gains this early in training are mainly due to neuromuscular adaptation? Is there a common time that it takes before your muscles are coordinated well enough to truly begin the overloading process?

Thanks for the input so far!